RE: The Rehabilitation of President Richard M. Nixon
September 24, 2022 at 11:21 am
(This post was last modified: September 24, 2022 at 11:30 am by Anomalocaris.)
Nixon laid the foundation of what will become the party of trump. Reagan made the substances that will be its walls.
Neither intended to achieve the specific end result that is the party of trump today, but both exhibited in plenty the reckless political opportunism that foreshadows both trump and the party of trump by taking things down in this direction that had broad consequences predicted right from the beginning, for tactical political gains.
Nixon believed the president must outwardly diligently protect how mechanism of the republic but can cheat to defeat the intent of the mechanism in order to keep and expand his own power.
Reagan inculcated the spirit in the GOP that moderation and respect for loyal opposition is a quaint anachronism unsuited to the contemporary spirit of moral self-righteousness.
Neither intended to achieve the specific end result that is the party of trump today, but both exhibited in plenty the reckless political opportunism that foreshadows both trump and the party of trump by taking things down in this direction that had broad consequences predicted right from the beginning, for tactical political gains.
Nixon believed the president must outwardly diligently protect how mechanism of the republic but can cheat to defeat the intent of the mechanism in order to keep and expand his own power.
Reagan inculcated the spirit in the GOP that moderation and respect for loyal opposition is a quaint anachronism unsuited to the contemporary spirit of moral self-righteousness.